Roehl Navagation system?

you have to follow their fuel/routing plan they get rather upset if you wonder too far off their route. at least they did with me the first few months i was there. your also going too need a good gps too i follow there routing plan till i get close to shipper/cons then i follow my own gps that last few miles.

 

As mentioned, they give you the exact route they want you to follow and where they want you to stop and buy fuel. Over the years, they've learned from experience which routes are safest and the most efficient, and they have volume purchase agreements with the major fuel chains (Pilot, TA, Love's, etc.) where it's least expensive for them to pay for the fuel. (Roehl is not paying the price you see on the pump, and the fuel tax rates are different across state lines, so there's a set of information that factors in that you as the driver may not have visibility to, but Roehl's planning system does.)

I programmed the assigned route into my GPS and then let my GPS remind me of where I needed to turn, etc. Having a good truck GPS like the Rand McNally unit, or CoPilot software for phone/laptop will definitely help you out.

 

No prob, ask all the questions you want. I'm re-joining Roehl shortly (after taking a year off), heading to flatbed orientation in Gary next week.

 

For what it's worth, Roehl now has the CoPilot software built-in to their Qualcomm and TruckPC consoles within their trucks. It auto-loads the assigned route into the CoPilot software at the time you receive the routing assignment from dispatch.

You are still free to use your own GPS unit, but you would have to program the assigned route from dispatch into your GPS and follow that. The only reason I could think of at this point to bring along your own GPS unit is if you have a strong preference for its user interface over the one used by CoPilot.

 

the qualcomms gps is really bad it has alot of issues both software and hardware, if you use it by itself your going to spend alot of time trying too turn around.
the fuel and route directions come in a text file you need to write those directions down on a scratch pad and have them handy for reference while your driving. also you can get more info by requesting directions on the qualcomm street by street turns for the last few miles, specific rules the shipper has, or if they allow parking or not,

i use copilot on the qualcomm i have a rand mcnally 520lm that i rely on and ive got street and trips on a laptop that i use alot and i still have have to get out and ask for directions every once in a while.

 

59 is not too old. I was a software engineer for about 30 years, then started flatbedding at age 52.

That said, one of the things that can start to trip up people in their 50s and older is being able to pass a DOT physical -- your blood pressure must be 140/90 or lower, and well-controlled. Blood pressure tends to rise as people age and they also tend to put on weight (which can worsen BP issues) so if someone has been bumping against that over the course of their life, they may start to have trouble maintaining their medical qualifications as they get older. Make sure you've got your medical-related ducks in a row and can keep them there, before spending the time and money to get a CDL.